As we have been reaching to high age society, medical interest has focused on the quality of life in the aged people. In this connection, a maintenance of male sexual function has been a topic of society. However, when we discussed male sexual dysfunction of the aged people, we need a data on standard of the sexual function by age in Japanese people. Thus, we conducted a survey on sexual function of male, of which results showed that the male sexual function gradually declined at the age of 50. The study on factors which accelerate male sexual dysfunction in "climacterium" revealed that psycological stress played an important role in the dysfunction. The decline of male sexual function correlated with a severity of unidentified complaints syndrome, which are often seen in"female climacterium".We were able to identify in experimental studies in rat that male sexual dysfunction may depend on a decrease of dopamine level in hypothalamic area, particularly, sex center, the decrease which
… Morewere also accelerated by psychological stress. Penile-vacular disorder was revealed to be the most influential factor on gradually and physiologically progressive decrease of sexual function in the aged people of more than 60. Neurological disorder was an influential factor. However, in patients with diabetes or those receiving dialysis, they were found to have not only more accelerated penile vascular disorder but also severe neurological dysfunction. It should be emphasized that sexual dysfunction in aged male is often associated with disorder of peripheral organs and also with a decrease of dopamine level in the brain, which is seen in "male climacterium". Since a positive correlation of dopamine level with serum testosterone is commonly found, testicular endocrine dysfunction by age seems indirectly to influence on sexual dysfunction in the aged people.Thus, an administration of l-dopa on the aged improved to some extent the sexual dysfunction, suggesting that dopamine level is partly related to the sexual dysfunction in the aged people. Less